In another exciting round of Blizzard swings the ban-hammer, this time the target is Diablo 3 and the fallout as caused a major shakeup of the leaderboards because cheaters have been booted.

In a posting by Blizzard the say that the shakeup on the leaderboards is due to players that were cheating were removed and other players have had their ranks adjusted appropriately as a result of all of this banning and punishment. Apparently it was not all punishment, because Blizzard also states that in some instances rank went up as those above you were nabbed cheating.

Blizzard says that they will continue to monitor the situation and it will take action when the behavior of players is determined to be cheating. We suggest that you watch what you are doing so that you don’t end up on the wrong end of the ban hammer in the future.

Blizzard is happy and why shouldn’t they be as World of Warcraft subscriptions are up. The reason for the increase can be traced to the release of the latest expansion pack which was recently released. The latest WOW expansion pack is called Warlords of Draeno and its release has driven subscriptions to 10 million.

Selling over 3.3 million copies of the Warlords of Draenor on the first day alone, growth has been seen in all major territories since release. The numbers do include those players that are using the 1 month free subscription that comes with the expansion pack. WoW subscriptions had climbed to 7.4 million last quarter after being down.

Of course the release of Warlords of Draenor has not been without its problems. Still Blizzard says that they are working around the clock to address them. Owners have been offered free play time as compensation.

Blizzard has been careful to make sure that people understand that Overwatch is not Project Titan, but a new project all together. Overwach is being described as a “pick-up-and-play first-person shooter” that is set in a brand new universe. The game is described better in the synopsis for the game below:

“The action of Overwatch takes place in a technologically advanced, highly stylized future earth. In a time of global crisis, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities known as Overwatch had come together to restore peace to a war-torn world. After many years, the group’s influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now but the world still needs heroes.”

Word is that the game will start beta testing at some point in 2015, but sources suggest that it could be 2016 before we see Overwatch actually released.

While we know that Blizzard has canceled the project Titan that they were working on, but a strange gap from noon to 2pm at Blizzcon has everyone talking. Could it be that this time gap on the main stage is a clue that Blizzard might have something new to announce?

We a lot of people are suggest that it could be an announcement of something new. The thing is that Blizzard has never done something like this before, but there is a first time for everything.

As for what it might be, that is a difficult question, but some unaccounted for floor space has also added to the mystery. Again, it could be nothing or it might be something. For the time being we will have to let the rumor mill continue to theorize on what it could be.

Blizzard has confirmed that its unannounced next-generation MMO only known as codename Titan has been cancelled. This next-generation MMO was slated to be the be the successor to World of Warcraft and has been in development for about seven years.

According to Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime in an interview with Polygon, he told the site “we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine and it didn’t come together.” He added, “We didn’t find the fun. We didn’t find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a re-evaluation period, and actually what we re-evaluated is weather that’s the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no.”

While we can only imagine how hard it was to reach this decision and throw away seven years of development on a product that will never see the light day, the good news is that the decision is likely the best decision for gamers. Blizzard has a track record of making decisions to can games during development that are not cutting it and while it is expensive, it is likely better than bringing out a game that is not up to the company’s high standards.

We can’t tell you a lot about Project Titan, because since it was unannounced, we don’t know much about it other than small snippets of information that leaked out as well as a number of rumors. We do know that it was unlikely to be subscription based and the goal was for Titan to have a broader appeal that World of Warcraft does.

Blizzard has a few things in development like the next Starcraft expansion and the next expansion for World of Warcraft, but it does look like a new MMO from Blizzard isn’t in the cards right now or in the near future. A number of rumors are indicating that cancelling Project Titan could cost as much as $50 million dollars.

In a surprising bit of news, Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will support cross-platform save imports from either the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3.

With the cross-platform save imports, players will be able to take save data created on Diablo 3 on either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 and import that data into Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. (The ability to export save game data and transfer it between the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is not supported.)

In order to complete the transfer of the save game data, players will have to link their Xbox Live Gamertag or PlayStation PSN ID to Battle.net. Once linked the process is painless and handled through the in game menus. The process is easy to use and works very quickly.

There is no difference in frame rate between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version of Diablo 3 with both console versions churning out 60fps. As for the resolution, the PlayStation 4 will render at 1080p, while the Xbox One will be rendering at 900p and upconverted to 1080p.

There is no word if the developers will attempt to take advantage of the extra 10% of GPU performance offered by not using Kinect in order to crank the frame rate up. Frame rate is said to be the priority with this game and we have been told not to read much into the difference in resolution between the two.

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil edition will arrive on August 19th on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. The PlayStation versions of the game will include exclusive enemies from The Last of Us and Shadow of Colossus.

Blizzard has now confirmed that the Xbox One will in fact get Diablo 3 after all. Initially, while Diablo 3 was confirmed as coming to the PlayStation 4, it was not officially confirmed for the Xbox One. Now the new Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition has been confirmed for not only the Xbox One, but the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

That’s not all, as Blizzard has also confirmed that those with both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 saves, with be able to transfer those game saves from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One and from the PlayStation 3 to the PlayStation 4.

Blizzard has also confirmed that the Ultimate Evil edition will support four-player co-op and online multiplayer modes. In addition a new mode has been added which is called the Apprentice mode which will boost the powers of lower level players to match the skills of their high-level co-op buddies. The Ultimate Edition will also include a mail system that can be used to send some items to one another. Player Gifts will allow players to specify treasure mails for a selected friend.

The Diablo 3: Ultimate Edition will arrive on August 19th on dealer shelves in North America. It will set you back $59.99 for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version, but those who missed Diablo 3 the first time around on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 will only have to pay $39.99 to get a copy of the Ultimate Edition.

Blizzard has announced that BlizzCon 2014 will be held on November 7th and 8th in Anaheim at the Convention Center. Ticket sales will happen in two waves with the first batch being sold on May 7th at 7pm PST and the second batch to go on sale May 10th at 10am PST. Pricing for the two day event will be $199 each plus tax and handling of course.

A limited number of $750 tickets will be sold for the pre-BlizzCon Benefit Dinner. Tickets for the dinner will go on sale Wednesday May 14th at 7pm PST. Admission to BlizzCon is included in the $750 price tag with proceeds benefitting Children’s Hospital of Orange County. Blizzard warns that some changes have been made to the ticket sales process and fortune favors the prepared. So you are going to want to check out the BlizzCon Ticket webpage for additional information.

The on again off again Blizzard title known as StarCraft Ghosts might not be as dead as everyone was left to believe. Blizzard producer Alex Mayberry has suggested that it is something that they would “like to do” and they think that “the idea is still perfectly viable.” Still Mayberry says that “I don’t know if we will ever do it, but it is something that we would like to do.”

The bottom line is that interest in the third-person perspective twist on the StarCraft universe is something that still interests a great number of people. While the game was first announced over 10 years ago, it has been on and off again since then. The reasons have been many, but the ability for the console to deliver on Blizzard’s vision has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks, but now it would seem that the Xbox One and PS4 are more than able to handle the tech required to deliver Blizzard’s vision for Ghost.

While Mayberry admits that it is not likely that it will be anytime soon that Blizzard revisits Ghost, it isn’t quite dead just yet. We would not get too excited, but don’t give up hope.